The word "catarrh" was widely used in medicine since before the era of medical science, which explains why it has various senses and in older texts may be synonymous with, or vaguely indistinguishable from, common cold, nasopharyngitis, pharyngitis, rhinitis, or sinusitis. The word is no longer as widely used in American medical practice, mostly because more precise words are available for any particular pathosis. Indeed, to the extent that it is still used, it is no longer viewed nosologically as a disease entity but instead as a symptom, a sign, or a syndrome of both. The term "catarrh" is found in medical sources from the United Kingdom.[3] The word has also been common in the folk medicine of Appalachia, where medicinal plants have been used to treat the inflammation and drainage associated with the condition.[4]

The word "catarrh" comes from 15th century French catarrhe, Latin catarrhus, and Greek Ancient Greek: καταρρεῖν[5] (katarrhein): kata- meaning "down" and rhein meaning "to flow." The Oxford English Dictionary quotes Thomas Bowes' translation of Pierre de la Primaudaye's The [second part of the] French academie (1594) "Sodainely choked by catarrhes, which like to floods of waters, runne downewards."[6]